Movin' to the Country, Gonna Eat a Lot of Peaches
by Midori Ryuu
Summary: Taikoubou has sennin level power, so why didn't Genshi Tenson sama ever try to make him a sennin? What if he did? OC, rated T just in case.
1. Prologue: Meeting

Movin' to the Country, Gonna Eat a lot of Peaches Disclaimer: I do NOT own Houshin Engi, so don't go suing me, as you're unlikely to get anything. I do not own the song "Peaches" by the Presidents of the United States of America, for which this fanfic is named. I do, however, own Momo. Prologue: Meeting Taikoubou 

It was such a strange thing. Our meeting, our time together, it was all so strange. I've never really been sure of what words to put to it, no matter how much I've thought on the matter.

I still remember the first time we met…

I had been training one day on Mount Konron. The phrase "minding my own business" seems to fit pretty well.

"Taikoubou," I heard, and turned to look.

Genshi Tenson-sama had landed behind me and was walking over slowly and awkwardly. I knew that, although he was a very old man, he didn't have arthritis. So I was suspicious.

"Yes, Genshi Tenson-sama?" I asked as he stopped.

"Taikoubou," he repeated, squirming, his hands behind his back, "you've gotten very strong these past thirty years."

Raising an eyebrow, I nodded and waited for him to continue.

"In fact, you've attained sennin-level power already, which is truly amazing!" he went on, the squirming getting worse. I saw something behind him, but I couldn't tell what it was.

I leaned to the side, trying to see it, and wondered what the point to this conversation would be. It was slowly creeping up on me, but the truth had yet to manifest itself.

"So I think it's time you took on the title of sennin!" he shouted between grunting as he tried to keep something very fidgety behind him.

"Um… Okay…" I said absently, leaning further and further to the side.

"Great!" he cheered quickly, grinning behind his beard as he stepped to the side. "Here's your first disciple!"

Before I had a chance to say anything, he was running off, calling back things like "It's your responsibility to be a good role model," and "Take good care of her!" I remember thinking he could run very fast for someone his age.

I looked to the spot where he had been, and there you stood. A tiny little thing of twelve, underfed and wearing braids, grinning up at me like you had just won some great prize. You were the same age I had been when I started training, and dressed in peasant clothing at least three years too big for you.

"Hey, Shishou-sama," you croaked happily.

"Great," I muttered to myself with a groan. "What am I supposed to do with a kid?"

Ignoring my exasperation, you bowed a little clumsily from the waist, your orange-pink braids falling over your shoulders.

"Shishou-sama," you began, your words slow and awkward, and obviously rehearsed, "I hum… humbly ask you train me well."

I stared for a minute, then started laughing. Startled, you raised your head to watch me with an uncertain, bemused smile.

"Oh," I wiped a tear from my eye, "you're a strange kid. Well, it's not like I have a choice, so I'll train you."

Grinning from ear to ear, you stood up straight and followed me home.

"So, kid," I asked conversationally on the way back, "what's your name?"

"Momo," you replied, some of the scratchiness leaving your voice.

**Author's Note:** Okay. In case you can't tell, it's set 30 years after Ryoubou becomes Taikoubou. And the "you" he mentions is Momo. He's not talking to her or writing a letter or anything, he's just having a conversation in his head. I do it, and I bet you do, too. Anyway, constructive criticism is very much appreciated. I've tried to make Momo very non-Mary Sue. So if I've failed, tell me how instead of just flaming me. Thank you, and please review.


	2. Chapter 1: Visitor

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Houshin Engi. You should realize that by now that I am not cool enough to be Fujiryu.

Chapter one: Visitor 

**Momo**

I was still growing then. "Like a weed," you'd say. And then I'd correct you, "Like a peach tree!" That was our idea of witty banter, I guess. It had only been four years. There was plenty of time to learn how to be witty.

When I first started training under you, you made me eat a whole lot. I wasn't used to having so much food, so I was happy for it. I think you realized that, Shishou-sama.

Then, one day, I was hanging the laundry out to dry. It was a really nice day. The sky was a bright, bright blue, and there were only a few clouds. There was no one else around. I leaned down to get a handful of clothespins from the laundry basket. Standing up, I glimpsed his legs, but I still started when I saw his face, and dropped all the pins.

Oh, Shishou, you would've laughed at me so hard! I thought he was an angel at first, with his halo and his gentle smile, and his blue hair all splayed out. He was hugging this giant ball to his chest. Silly of me not to realize it was a paopei. Then the wind blew, nearly sending a pair of your boxers down into the mortal world, and it blew these flaps on his back. They reminded me of great big wings.

I wanted to ask him what it was like, up there above the sennin world.

"Excuse me, but do you know where Bou-chan is?" he asked, his voice soft and fluid.

"Bou-chan? Oh! You mean Shishou-sama!"

I dropped the dress I was hanging up, and it fell in a damp heap at my feet. I felt rather stupid, but I smiled. Still, his face was kind.

"Shishou-sama…?"

"Fugen?" I heard your voice growing near. "Is that you?"

"Bou-chan!" he called out affectionately. "When did you get married?"

"Married…?" You blustered a little at his teasing, and he laughed good-naturedly. "She's my student!"

"I see. And how do you like teaching so far?"

He walked past me and the two of you settled into a comfortable conversation. I felt a bit of an outsider, and out of place. It was obvious you two had known each other a while, and a while to a sennin is very long to mortals.

Trying not to listen in, I knelt down to pick up the dress and the clothespins, and started picking blades of grass off the former. I considered just washing it again, but laziness prevailed, and I went on with hanging the laundry. While I was in the middle of hanging up the last of it, one of your shirts, you caught my attention again.

"Momo," you called, waving me over. "We're gonna have tea inside now, so we'll train later. Could you make some snacks for us?"

"Ah… sure, Shishou-sama."

I blinked, staring as the two of you, laughing and talking animatedly, walked off. Then, remembering myself, I gathered up the laundry basket and stray clothespins and ran ahead to the house. Inside, I set the basket down in the corner of our room and hurried into the modest little kitchen. After four years, I finally figured out how you liked your tea (strong and slightly sweet; you were especially fond of jasmine) and I brewed it the right way.

When it was ready, I got some of those pretty peach-shaped buns you liked and put them on a tray with the tea set. As I slid the door open with my foot, I could hear your laughter. You were just then coming inside.

Aside from the kitchen, the only other room we had was that one. It was our living room, our dining room, and our bedroom. The worn little table had been pulled to the center of the room at breakfast, and we had left it there. I set the tray down on it as you both sat down.

You were still talking, and curiosity had finally overwhelmed me, so I stayed to pour your tea for you, taking as long as I could.

"You should've seen the old man run when he came to drop her off, Fugen," you went on, amusement in your eyes.

Both you and the strange, beautiful man smiled at me, and I smiled back before taking it as my cue to leave. Your voices faded slightly as I shut the kitchen door, but I could still hear you if I sat close to it. Which I did.

"She seems nice, Bou-chan. How long have you been training her?"

"About four years now… She's a good kid."

"Ah, but she's not so much a child any more, is she?" he laughed. "She'll be a sennyo in her own right before you know it."

You laughed too, a little more softly than usual. I looked down, and saw he was right. I really did grow a lot. The thought made me smile a little.

"So how is your training coming along?" he went on pleasantly.

"She's advanced quite a bit, but there's still a long way to go. Even so, I think she'll be able to handle a paopei soon."

"That's good. You're progressing quickly."

"Oh, and Momo," you said after a while, making me start.

"Y…yes, Shishou-sama?" I asked querulously.

"I know you've been listening to us, so you may as well come sit out here."

Grinning sheepishly, I came into the room and took a seat on a cushion at an empty side of the table. Fugen laughed in his peaceful way, and you in your triumphant "Nyo ho ho ho!"

"I can see why you two have been getting along so well," he beamed.

"Nee," I began, looking up at you hopefully, "Shishou-sama, is it true that I'm almost ready to start using a paopei?"

"Yeah," you said, putting on your villainous face, "so I'm gonna work you twenty times harder from here on in!"

"Kyaa!" I cried, suppressing a laugh. "Shishou-sama is so cruel! Save me, Fugen-san!"

You cackled and stormed around the room like a monster, and I couldn't help but laugh.

Fugen slept over that night. We pushed our two rather flat and ragged secondhand futons together as he slept in the middle. Crickets, somehow able to thrive even on Mount Konron, chirped outside in the night. They sounded so close I half expected to hear them hopping around on the engawa. Fugen and I were lucky it was such a warm night, for you stole all the covers as you tossed and turned in your sleep.

We laughed about it the next morning, to your confusion.

**Author's note:** Big thanks to my friends for beta reading this for me. If you can't tell, the "you" is Taikoubou. And once again, please, please, PLEASE only criticize if it's constructive. Also, an engawa is the wrap-around porch on a Japanese house.


	3. Chapter 2: Time Together

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Houshin Engi, okay! It doesn't belong to me, no matter how I may wish it so! And so, I write crappy fanfiction to fill the void inside! THE VOID!

Chapter Two: Time Together Fugen 

Over the years, I visited you many times. The three of us had a lot of fun together. In the spring, we watched the blossoms on your peach tree. In the summer, we ate its fruit. In autumn, we saw its leaves turn brown and fall. And in winter, we played in the snow beneath its bare branches.

Those days were full of peace and joy. I came by as often as I could, and the two of you always took time off from training to play with me.

Sometimes I watched you together before I came to say hello. Perhaps it was fluke or coincidence, but as the years went by, more and more often I found you talking and laughing or eating a picnic lunch in the field.

It made a part of me very happy to see you so at ease, Bou-chan. Even so, it worried me that you trained less and less. Were you losing sight of why you became a sennin in the first place?

Momo stopped aging a year or two after I met her. She really didn't change much, mentally or physically. The two of you lived in paradise, untouched by the outside world. How _would_ she change?

You were changing, though. I sometimes thought the peace was stealing away all your motivation, your memories. It was nice to see you laugh and smile for real, eating peaches on the engawa with fireflies to light your evening. But it worried me.

And so it was that, almost eight years after the first time we all had tea together, I was forced to be the bearer of bad news.

The three of us were sitting on the engawa that summer, eating a watermelon. Momo was watching a red dragonfly with wonder, but you seemed distracted, I suppose by my having been quiet most of the day.

"What's the matter?" you asked quietly, your voice reminding me strangely of a growl.

"Bou-chan," I hesitated. "a lot of things are happening in the human world."

"What do you mean?"

By then, the dragonfly had flown away and Momo was watching us in cautious silence. The sun was getting low in the sky.

"Dakki has been gaining power again."

Part of me expected you to gasp, but you didn't. Your brows furrowed, making a small crease in your forehead, and you frowned. Momo, who knew little of the situation, nevertheless frowned as well.

"Has she wed the emperor yet?"

I shook my head.

"No. For the time being, she is training. I have heard she has nearly perfected her temptation technique, and can seduce even the oldest and most devout of monks."

"Damn," you swore, turning your face towards the boards on which we sat.

"And… I've heard she's gaining support."

"Sendou support?"

I nodded, sighing inwardly.

"Especially among the youkai."

"Damn," you swore again. "I've heard about some of them."

"It gets worse."

You both looked at me, eyes wide. I chewed on my lip a moment, and wondered why I had to be the one to tell you, even though I knew why.

"There have been reports of Shinkouhyou being seen with Dakki."

Your hands went slack, and you dropped the slice of half-eaten watermelon you had been holding. It hit the edge of the engawa, leaving a streak of juice, and then fell onto the dirt below, forgotten. Even Momo looked scared.

So. Even someone as isolated as she had heard enough of Shinkouhyou to know to be afraid. The thought did not give me any peace.

"How many followers does she have now?" you asked gravely after a while.

The sky was getting darker, and the floating green light of fireflies began to appear.

"We're not sure, but the best estimate so far is about fifty sendou and seven hundred humans."

You sat silent and still for a while, until all of a sudden you picked up another slice of watermelon and started eating feverishly.

Surprised, Momo and I blinked and stared at you. She reached out a hand slowly and tentatively.

"Bou-chan?" I asked, wearing a bemused smile.

"What?" you said, juices dripping from your mouth. "All this thinking's made me hungry! I need to eat before I can do anything about this."

In spite of our conversation, I laughed, happy to see you act like that. Momo smiled at your behavior as well, but she turned away and drew her knees up to her chest. She sat so still that after a while, a firefly landed on her.

We three of us together slept in your little room that night. I lay awake between you for quite some time. None of us slept well that night, I daresay. You neither tossed nor turned, and so I doubt you slept at all. Momo lay on her side, facing the wall; I did not have to see her to tell how tense she was.

"Fugen?" she asked me early the next morning as I followed her into the kitchen to help with breakfast.

"Yes, Momo-chan?" I replied as pleasantly as I could, getting out a pot for our stew.

She twitched a little at the diminutive.

"I don't know a lot about Dakki, but… when sendou follow her, humans get hurt, don't they?"

I hesitated a moment, then nodded.

"Have you… have you heard anything about that?"

It was barely perceptible, but her hands were shaking. I frowned.

"Who do you want to know about?"

"The Zan tribe… They're a distant branch of the Kyou, and live in the same area… Are they okay?"

"Are they a small tribe?"

"Yes."

"I'm afraid I don't know… I'm sorry. It's hard to find information on the smaller tribes."

She fumbled the ladle she held, and it clattered onto the floor. I heard your sleepy, possibly false groan from the next room. Quickly, she picked it up again and washed it off in the basin of water you kept in the corner for the dishes.

"I see. Thank you, Fugen-san."

"Fugen!" you called groggily, and I left her to make breakfast.

I stayed with you for several days after that. While you trained, I knew you could see the effect peace had had on your skills. Whenever you took a break from training, I watched you as you sat on the engawa and Momo cooked in silence.

When you thought I wasn't paying attention, you would stare pensively into the distance, probably chiding yourself for slacking so much in your training.

We ate several meals that were slightly burnt, or that had a rather coppery taste. Momo was spacing out. I could tell, she was also angry with herself for distracting you, for not training enough, for not being stronger.

By no means can I read anyone's mind, nor know for sure what they are feeling. But I am a good judge of human nature. The two of you were full of self-doubt. Even as you started training more rigorously, I saw you catch yourselves look longingly at the field and your peach tree. And then your faces would change, anger flashing over your expressions before turning inward.

**Author's note:** Getting pretty far along in the story now. Fugen is not easy to write for. Um… Not much else to say, except for begging you to review this.


	4. Chapter 3: Separation

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Houshin Engi. No, really, I don't. No, seriously… Do I _look _like a 30-something Japanese man to you! Oh… wait… You can't see me. Only two more chapters after this, but they may be a little slow in coming.

Chapter three: Separation Taikoubou 

When I was twelve, my family, my tribe, my whole way of life all died. I was tending the sheep in a field far from my village when I saw the smoke. I later found out that Dakki had sent soldiers to take the Kyou prisoner. To bury with the dead emperor.

That was when Genshi Tenson-sama came to me and made me a doushi. I didn't want anyone else to have to experience what I did. At first, I thought only of revenge, but soon I saw a larger picture. Sendou and humans were not meant to live together.

The saying "absolute power corrupts absolutely" is true. No matter how many people are given that kind of power, some of them will abuse it. With sendou, when that happens, it is humans who suffer.

We couldn't go on living the way we did, not for long. We spent our days high above the mortal suffering of earth, living in peace and happiness. We didn't suffer from illness or hunger.

We were like Dakki.

We weren't actively hurting the humans, and we weren't living luxuriously off of their hard work, either. But by having the power to help them and doing nothing, we were letting them suffer. It was just a more passive form of damage.

I won't lie. I enjoyed our peaceful time together. I've often missed those days. But I knew I didn't deserve them.

When Fugen told us what was going on in the human world, I started thinking. I knew that no matter what, we couldn't go back to those days. I started training you again, hoping we could at least stay together.

Every day made me more sure of what had to happen.

Fugen later told me that I worried you in those few days after he gave us the news. It was strange to hear it; it sounded almost like he was scolding me. He also said he told you about my past, and that's why you made the decision you did. He didn't have to tell me, though. You didn't have to tell me, either. I knew.

"Shishou-sama?" you asked me one day, your voice small like a child's.

Your voice didn't sound like that when you were young, I reminisced.

"Shishou-sama?" you repeated, snapping me from my reverie.

"Yeah?" I replied, making sure my voice didn't sound soft.

"I've been thinking… about all of this."

I listened silently, waiting for you to continue.

"Shishou-sama," you went on, clearly fighting the urge to bite your lip, "you've got something important… real important… to do. Way more important than teaching some useless little doushi. You already know that, though."

Your eyes looked a little too shiny, a little too pink.

"I can't be interfering with you helping all those people. I'm just a hindrance. I'm making things harder for you…"

I wanted to say that wasn't true, but I knew you wouldn't believe me. You were right, to an extent.

"We need more sendou on our side," I said after a while. "Good ones, like you."

You smiled and shook your head, one long peach braid flopping over your shoulder.

"It'd kind of you to say, but I'm doing more harm here than good. So tomorrow morning, I'm gonna leave with Fugen."

"…I see."

"I'm gonna get stronger, Shishou-sama. I can already use a paopei, so I can train on my own. I'll get real strong, so I can help you help the humans. I'm not gonna be a burden to you any more."

I nodded, slowly, and you turned away.

"I… I'm gonna make dinner now, okay, Shishou-sama? So don't come in the kitchen."

"All right…"

That night, we ate dinner. We talked and laughed about old times. But no matter what we said, it felt fake. Underneath it all, there was this vast awkward silence, a knowledge of what morning would bring.

Fugen slept somewhere else that night. I never did ask him where. I doubt he was any happier about the situation than we were, and he probably didn't feel right sleeping under the same roof.

The next morning, I got up early. You were still asleep when I slipped into the kitchen. I made our breakfast, and burnt it a little. Normally… you would've made a face and laughed, but you just smiled and said it was good.

After breakfast, the silence returned completely. You packed up some food to take with you, and your few clothes.

"Well," you said awkwardly as I stood facing you.

I couldn't help but think about how you had changed. And then I realized you had known me half your life.

You chewed on your bottom lip for a while, not looking me in the eyes.

"Momo…"

You looked up.

"Be careful."

You nodded.

"One of these days, I'll be able to help you, Shishou… no, Taikoubou."

It was strange to hear you say my name, but I smiled a little.

"I know."

You bit your lip again, then rushed forward and threw your arms around my neck. I hugged you gingerly, not sure of what to do, After a while, you let go and picked up your bag.

"Goodbye, Momo," I said softly.

"Goodbye… Taikoubou."


End file.
